Boswell, Miles, Johnson discuss bills, economic development of OB, budget
Daviess County legislators discussed some of the session’s pending bills during the annual Legislative Update hosted by the Chamber of Commerce. As the session ends in the coming weeks, all legislators said to keep an eye on some of these bills as they move through the chambers.
In one of the more divided points of the meeting, the legislators differed on how the City could develop economically.
Senator Gary Boswell noted that the City needs to recognize where new industrial areas can be developed. He noted that, in some respect, Owensboro has a more negative connotation for big businesses.
“We can do a whole lot better. I think what I see in Frankfort right now is that, as a community, we’re thought of, unfortunately, as an anti-business community. I think it’s probably the result of some things that have happened, like the casino and the distilling company,” Boswell said.
On the contrary, he said the state needs to better coordinate economic efforts before causing accidental “cannibalization.”
“I don’t think people realize how much our community has been cannibalized because of the project in Elizabethtown. So, as we bring these huge economic development projects into the state, we have to be careful about this. Because of what’s happening, we’re shutting other businesses down because we’re losing all the employees,” Boswell said.
For, Majority Caucus Chair Suzanne Miles the City is doing “extremely well in multiple categories.” She instead posed that Frankfort views the City positively and is well respected.
She noted efforts like HealthForce KY have helped raise Owensboro’s respect in the Capital.
“As far as healthcare, I think healthcare is a really positive area for us as far as that goes,” Miles said. “I think it’s easy to point [what Boswell said] out every now and then whenever you stump your toe on issues like the ones that he’s mentioned, and I agree. I really think that we also need to recognize we’ve got a tremendous amount of value going on, and they’re going to serve well.”
Miles said she believes the Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corporation is making successful efforts to bring business here. The next component is ensuring the quality of life is also positive.
While Miles and Boswell discussed attracting big business, Representative DJ Johnson noted that small businesses should not be excluded from the conversation.
“It looks great when you have headlines saying 6,000 new jobs are coming into an area but if you have a small business start up that has the potential for growing over the years, I get very excited about that. Businesses are the backbone of our economy nationwide, and there’s no difference here,” Johnson said. “ … Now we can get a lot of base hits and score a lot of runs with base hits; we don’t have to hit a homerun to do well.”
When it comes to legislation, Boswell and Miles said the state budget is the most important issue on their radars as they sort through different priorities. It has been in the Senate since February 2.
“We are anxiously waiting for that document. We got the budget sooner rather than later for them, and we will try to get to that process,” Miles said.
Johnson said he has been working on roughly 8 bills brought forward and merging them into one bill that addresses most areas. In addition, Johnson said he is revising bills HB661 and HB595.
Specifically, he said that the latter bill could increase election financial transparency. The bill pertains to reporting campaign funds. Johnson said should the bill be passed, if a person reports raising $3,000 in funds, they will have a series of reports they will do leading up to the election, while those under the threshold will only report at the end of the cycle.
“It’s not a problem around here, but there are places in the state where people just don’t want to admit what they’re doing. That’s not transparency for the voters,” Johnson said.
Miles noted that there are roughly 14 bills that involve an amendment to the Kentucky Constitution. With state statute only allowing 4 Constitutional Amendments to be on the ballot, Miles said several legislators are advocating for their bills to be one of the four — as she is for HB2.
HB2, according to Miles, is more of a question than an answer. The bill is being proposed to poll the Kentucky citizens if they allow their legislators to decide on funding schools outside the public school system.
Under the current Constitution, this is unallowed. Miles said that if it is received positively, discussions about what that looks like could form.
“This is a question. It’s not an answer. There’s not any funding that’s involved in this. It was solely to go on the ballot for that decision to be made to enable us because everything we do at this point, the courts say we can’t do this because the Constitution says,” Miles said.
All three noted that they are not in favor of HB500. Johnson specifically said he had talked to Representative Phillip Pratt and thinks the bill is “not going to go anywhere.”
“I had a lot of conversations with the sponsor on this bill. He had some good intentions. Frankly, I don’t think the bill in its current version is going to go anywhere. It has problems, and it is a well-intended bill, but again, it has unintended consequences. Honestly, in its current form, I wouldn’t support it,” Johnson said.
By Josh Kelly The Owensboro Times